Every year on May 24th many Slavic countries celebrate the Day of Slavic Writing System and Culture and praise the creators of the Slavic writing system – Saints Cyril and Methodius. This day was first celebrated in Bulgaria back in the 19th century, and later the tradition came to other countries: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova. Professor of the Department of Theology, Culture and Art, Doctor of Sciences (Art History) and Honoured Worker of Arts of Russia Natalya Parfentyeva shares on the traditions of Slavic writing culture and the holiday’s history.
– What do you think facilitated the preservation of the traditions of the ancient Slavic culture the most?
– The Old Slavic culture is directly related to the names of the Saints Cyril and Methodius. Each culture features two fields: a folk one dating back to pagan times, and spiritual or ecclesiastical one. Russia has preserved its great ancient traditions of the spiritual culture of Byzantium (the eastern realm of the Roman Empire). For this we should thank the educators of the Slavic peoples – Saints Cyril and Methodius, “the brothers from Thessalonica”. They did a truly heroic deed in the middle of the 9th century – they translated the Bible into the Church Slavonic language. To translate from Greek into Slavonic, the educators invented an alphabet which they based on the Greek alphabet. It was a very important event, one of messianic significance. And it happened following a request by of one Slavic Moravian Prince Rostislav. He addressed the Emperor of Byzantium to provide sacred books in a language that the Slavs could understand. The Emperor entrusted Saints Cyril and Methodius with this task, who were philosophers, theologians, and had a philological talent of linguists and translators. They went to the Prince and performed translation of the Bible and liturgical books. Thanks to this heroic deed the Slavs learned about the sacred mysteries and truths. We still use their alphabet.
– What is the history of the Day of Slavic Writing System and Culture?
– May 24th is a day when in all Russian orthodox churches, and also in Bulgaria, Serbia and in other countries the memory of the two brothers is celebrated and prayers are offered to Cyril and Methodius, who were proclaimed Saints. The church proclaimed them Equal-to-the-Apostles, meaning that in their deeds they were equal to the disciples of Christ. In Russia this holiday is celebrated as an official one since 1986. Initially one city was chosen where all pageants were held. I was lucky to attend such celebrations held in Smolensk in 1991.
– What do you think, are the Slavic culture traditions honoured in the modern world?
– Saints Cyril and Methodius connected our country to the great writing tradition of Byzantium, and Byzantium absorbed the origins of the Ancient Greek, and Ancient Hebrew sacred history and culture. And these were the roots from which the powerful Russian tree began to spring. We could step aside, forget this writing system, but it started developing and getting stronger in our home country. Our most ancient handwritten book is called the Ostromir Gospels, and it dates the year of 1056 and is being kept in the Russian National Library in Saint Petersburg. One of the Slavonic languages – the Russian language, which absorbed the alphabet of Saints Cyril and Methodius – was used to create the greatest works of the world level – in literature, poetry, music and science. For instance, the poetry by Alexander Pushkin, operas by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, novels by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy, scientific discoveries by Dmitri Mendeleev, Igor Kurchatov. All of them are people of the global scale who continued the spiritual and educational heroic deed by Saints Cyril and Methodius.